Sunday Book Club: The Woman In The Green Dress author Tea Cooper reveals secret to success in Australia

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She landed Down Under as a globetrotting teacher with no money — now author Tea Cooper makes a living immersing herself in Australian history to pump out her best-selling novels.

Her fifth book, The Woman In The Green Dress, focuses on the extraordinary role women played in early colonial business — and features an inheritance, the first Aussie opal and a deadly mystery.

Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where did you grow up? Were you always a reader and a writer?

I was born, and grew up, in England, just around the corner from Hampton Court Palace, which I blame for my interest in history. After a failed attempt as a cub reporter and a stint at University I took up a teaching position at The Lawrence School, Sanawar, in India and never went ‘home’. I ended up in Sydney on my 24th birthday with 40 cents in my pocket and a handful of addresses. I’ve always been a reader but for a long time writing took a back seat until I woke up ten years ago, after 35 years of teaching, and decided it was now or never. I resigned and put pen to paper.

All of your books are set in and around the Hunter Valley in New South Wales — what is the unique appeal of the region for you?

The Hunter Valley is where I chose to make my home. I live just outside a little town called Wollombi. The area was first settled in the 1820s and many people had high hopes of it becoming the administrative centre of the district. Fortunately steam ships and the railway put an end to that idea and nothing much has changed in the last hundred and fifty years. I’ve wandered a little bit further afield in my latest book, about 30 miles up the road!

Your new novel is The Woman in the Green Dress. What’s the elevator pitch?

A deadly mystery from another era draws Londoner Fleur Richards deep into its web in pursuit of an inheritance, the first Australian opal, and an unexpected legacy …

Where do you find your creative inspiration?

Initially random historical fact feeds my inspiration, and the area in which I live provides almost everything else. I can walk the paths my characters walked, find the house where they may have lived, talk to the locals, hear their stories, and then I ask questions, so many questions, and even on occasion borrow names!

You really immersed yourself in 19th century Sydney history — what’s your favourite fact that you came across in your research?

Without a doubt the role women played in Sydney businesses in the mid-nineteenth century. It’s becoming something of an obsession.

Many of these businesswomen were widows and spinsters, often in partnerships with other women. In 1858 an amazing variety of businesses were run by women — green grocers, milliners and dressmakers, poulterers, music shops, coffee houses, a servant’s registry, a ladies bathhouse, an oyster salon, restaurants, pubs, drapery and clothing stores — the list is endless. However, Tost and Rohu deserve a special mention, a mother and daughter duo who owned an international award-winning taxidermy business. They were the inspiration behind The Curio Shop of Wonders in The Woman in the Green Dress.

You clearly have a passion for Australian history — why do you love writing Australian historical fiction?

I knew nothing of Australia until I read A Town Like Alice, and all I wanted to do was see for myself … couple that with an existing love of all things historical and a desire to write fiction … destiny!

Popularity of genres goes in cycles, and historical fiction does seem to having a ‘moment’, not only in print, but TV series and movies as well, fuelled I believe by a mixture of nostalgia, the rise in interest in personal history and the recognition that the human conditions is constant. Historical fiction helps people understand the world they currently live in. It acts as a barometer showing how society is faring. So many current debates are reflections of the past.

What books influenced you as a writer?

As a child, at boarding school, books became a form of escape. I grew up on Rosemary Sutcliffe’s books, a hefty dose of Mary Stewart and my favourite ‘gothic’ novels. I can remember trembling under the blankets as I read Rebecca by torchlight, falling madly in love with Heathcliff and being convinced poor mad Bertha was locked in the attics above the dormitory and we’d all perish in flames.

What do you hope readers take away from The Woman in the Green Dress?

As with all my books I hope they enjoy escaping into the past, meeting the characters I’ve created and seeing the world through their eyes. I also hope they connect with the overarching theme of the book and relate it to their own experience.

What do you plan on writing next?

I’ve just completed a story which I will be sending to my publisher in January. I’m now at my favourite stage in the writing process — plotting, researching and fiddling with ideas — a story that revolves around a cartographer and Leichhardt’s trip to the Hunter before he set off on his more famous, and fatal, exploration. I’m very much at the ‘what if’ adventure stage. I’m not sure where it will lead me.